Pirates Ahoy!

[Aaron Drake]

I do believe that as Americans it is our government, and what the government owns is owned by the people.

Well, while I do subscribe to the belief that there is shared ownership within a business, I'm not so sure I believe there is shared ownership within the government.  For example, if you own stock in a company, then you could justifiably say that you own a portion of the company and its resources.  But no one owns stock in the government.

[Ryan DonCarlos]

that's true and not at the same time I mean you can't "Buy" the government but everyone is part of the government therfore each person "owns a portion of the company and its resources"  though It a VERY VERY VERY VERY small amount that isn't worth anything everyone still shares its "ownership"

(just to note we are getting off topic not like that has ever stopped that before   :-D )

[Aaron Drake]

Heh, true, you can't buy stock in the government, but so what?  That just means you don't "own" a piece of the government's resources, which was my point.  You are allowed to use them, but I don't know that you own a piece of them.  (But then who would even want to buy stock in an institution that's as in debt as the government?   :-)  Well, on second thought, maybe they should start selling stock so that they can begin to pay off the national debt.  It's a pretty good business since all Americans are lawfully required to patronize the government. :-D)

Off the topic again, I know.  Sorry.

[Ryan DonCarlos]

yeah I was goin to say "why would anyone want to buy stock in a government that is not based on checks and balances but on lies and distrust?" but I figured that would make the tread go totally into another subject but it seems like everyone is tired of talking about piracy I know I am

[Ryan Lintker]

Speaking of lies, it seems that the quotes that Fate is attributing to W., while they may sound like something that he would say, are originally Dan Quayle quotes.  They were then attributed to Al Gore by someone who thought that would be a good idea.  Then for the last election, they were attributed to George W. and distributed in a flier to get the word out to get more votes for Gore.  Dislike of a person shouldn't result in saying that they said something that they really didn't.  I'm sure that there are many stupid truly Bush quotes out there to use.

[Ryan DonCarlos]

Lol I knew one of these days someone would say something about that ;) I actually like Bush so it's not like i found it because I'm against Bush or the war etc. etc...  I just found it funny.  I am actually glad we got Bush because I'm not sure that Gore would have been able to handle Sept 11 and the war. I am fearfull to think what would have happened had he been elected.  I will update my signature but post it here so everyone knows what we are talking about.  I needed to find a new one anyway that was just a temp one.

"We're all capable of mistakes, but I do not care to enlighten you on the mistakes we may or may not have made."
...Governor George W. Bush

[Ryan Lintker]

I got those quotes in an email that said that they were Gore quotes.  I thought that was hilarious.  When I started seeing them around as Quayle and Bush quotes, I knew something was up.  When I read that they were being used as propaganda, I really started looking more critically at what was being spread around.

[Aaron Drake]

I know this is reeeeeaaaally off the topic, but can somebody please post the senior project final presentation schedule on this website?  This should have been done many moons ago, actually.  I'm only posting this here because it's likely that someone will read this and act on my request.  (545 views and counting! :-))  Thanks in advance to whomever does.

Heh, maybe we should make this a generic, miscellaneous, random topic thread since everyone keeps bringing up irrelevent topics.  We should rename it "Miscellaneous Topics Ahoy!"  :-P

[Ryan Lintker]

Speaking of things that don't get posted on this site, did anybody know that CAOS was at Springfest?  I heard about it through the grapevine, but shouldn't an official announcement been made here?

[Jerry]

Here's something closer to the topic:

"Software Bullet Is Sought to Kill Musical Piracy"
New York Times (05/04/03) P. A1; Sorkin, Andrew Ross

The music industry is clandestinely developing a barrage of technical weapons to use against online music pirates, including programs that freeze users' computers, slow their Internet connections, and perform seek-and-destroy searches on their hard drives.

Full story is here

[Travis]

a barrage of technical weapons

Ah, I was wondering when that new Britney Spears alblum was going to be released! :-P

including programs that freeze users' computers,

And the more they go out of the way to saddle their paying customers with restrictions and overall a crappier product, the more people will wind up downloading.
It's amazing that the RIAA spends so much effort on degrading the experience of existing customers just in case those customers *might* do something illicit with it.

Perhaps it's time they focused on *improving* the value of their product in order to get people to pay for it?